River Falls’ Ellery Ottem earns two top-five finishes at State Swimming Championship

Posted 11/15/22

All three divers finish top 22 The River Falls High School swimming record board needs to be updated one last time. Wildcat senior swimmer Ellery Ottem notched two top-five finishes, which included …

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River Falls’ Ellery Ottem earns two top-five finishes at State Swimming Championship

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All three divers finish top 22

The River Falls High School swimming record board needs to be updated one last time.

Wildcat senior swimmer Ellery Ottem notched two top-five finishes, which included two re-broken school records, and all of the divers finished in the top 22 at the 2022 Girls Swimming and Diving Championship at Waukesha South High School on Saturday, Nov. 12.

For Ottem, the final results of the state championship meet at Waukesha were a bittersweet moment. Throughout the 2022 senior campaign, her primary goal was to earn two top-three finishes at the state meet. Instead, she earned a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard Freestyle and a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard Freestyle.

Although it wasn’t the final leaderboard result Ottem wanted, she was more than happy with how she swam, especially with the times she posted which re-broke the previous school records she held in those two events. River Falls head coach Caitlin Brudzinski spoke about Ottem’s results.

“At this point, there are such strong athletes, you can only control what you can do,” Brudzinski said. “While she had a good day, so did everybody else. The top four finishers were all within 0.7 seconds and they were all really close. I know she wanted to finish higher, but she dropped time and re-broke the records from last weekend, she was feeling good.”

Although Ottem finished fourth in the 200yard Freestyle event, she was within 0.7 seconds of winning the state championship. The margin between the top four finishers was all well within one second and at one point was so close that Brudzinski and the crowd struggled to tell who was leading a race that turned into a photo finish.

“Watching the four of them go into that final stretch (of the 200-yard) was so close,” Brudzinski said. “When they finished everyone looked up at the board because nobody could tell (the results) just from looking in the water. She had a good day, unfortunately so did everybody else.”

While Ottem competed in the Swimming Championship events, River Falls had three athletes competing in the State Diving Championship. All divers who qualified for state were given five dives before cuts were made to narrow down the field to the final 20 competitors.

River Falls senior Kayleigh Volkman and freshman Avery Singel narrowly missed the cut, finishing in 21st and 22nd with scores of 163.10 and 161.60 respectively. A score of 164.20 would have qualified for the finals.

“After the first five dives, they cut down to 20 divers and they were both cut at that point, barely though. Kayleigh (Volkman) was just a point off and Avery (Singel) was just under two points off,” Brudzinski said. “It was a good showing. Kayleigh is a senior, so it was awesome for her to get there. Avery (Singel) is a freshman, so to be able to experience that was really good.”

While Volkman and Singel narrowly missed the cut, River Falls junior Rachel Everson made the cut and advanced to the final round of 16. After making her final dives of the championship, Everson finished in 11th place overall with a score of 392.20.

“We did expect Rachel (Everson) to make it through both cuts,” Brudzinski said. “Rachel (Everson) was able to jump a couple of places and finish in 11th place. That was good for her and it will be interesting to see what happens going forward next year.”

Volkman graduates as one of River Falls’ most talented divers in recent memory, while Everson and Singel will return next fall for their senior and sophomore seasons respectively. As for the aforementioned Ottem, she leaves River Falls as the best swimmer in school history and as the owner of nearly the entire school record leaderboard.

After graduation, Ottem will attend the University of South Carolina to continue her academic and athletic career as a Division 1 swimmer competing in the SEC.


River Falls senior swimmer Ellery Ottem stands on the podium with her fourth-place medal after competing in the 200-Yard Freestyle event at the 2022 State Swimming Championship at Waukesha South High School on Saturday, Nov. 12. Ottem also earned a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard Freestyle event. Photo courtesy of River Falls Swim and Dive